miro
MB Enthusiast
I had the opportunity to study the function of the head unit and the user interface called i-Drive.
i-Drive
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First of all it is very easy to use. Nudge in four directions and twist left and twist right. The twist and the nudge are usually the same movement but they can be alternate functions. EASY. It also goes down to do a mouse click.
DVD stacker
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Gone is the CD stacker .... this is the king of stackers. DVD, DVD-A, MP3 CD, MP3 DVD and on and on. Loading time was very fast. The map is loaded into the head unit hard drive via the stacker so it is super fast.
MP3
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Read CD and DVD MP3 with enormous ease. We went 10 levels down (folders within folders) and the head unit didnt blink. It just opened more and more folders. The REALLY cool thing is that once I scrolled to the top or to the bottom of the song list the dial became stiff and wouldnt turn easily. FORCED FEEDBACK - VERY COOL.
Going out of folders was really simple ....
[]..
click that icon and it goes back out of a folder.
STEERING WHEEL FUNCTIONS
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Very easy to learn and can change songs on the wheel or on the i-Drive. I imagine that voice control is also applicable. The head unit and the cluster shows the song name.
TV
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TV tuner was combination analog and digital tuner with dual screen output.
HEAD UNIT
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Unlike previous models COMAND this unit is part of the DVD stacker. The DVD stacker is in fact integrated into the COMAND. The head unit has SOUND AUX plug and VIDEO AUX plug so you can go direct into the (Euro) COMAND with a DVD player.
SUMMARY
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Once I found the ON button for the i-Drive and the volume on the armrest the rest was very simple. The phone was hidden under the palm rest and the front most set of buttons on the armrest give shrtcut jumps to head unit functions.
All functions are seemingly multi-user in the sense that there is more than one way to arrive at the same menu option and you can expect to have the passenger operate many of the functions just as the driver would with similar comfort and convenience.
The front face of the COMAND simply doesnt exist. The high mounted screen and the armrest is all that can be seen. The rest is hidden discretely and only the DVD stacker is a clue of what is in the dashboard.
i-Drive
--------
First of all it is very easy to use. Nudge in four directions and twist left and twist right. The twist and the nudge are usually the same movement but they can be alternate functions. EASY. It also goes down to do a mouse click.
DVD stacker
------------
Gone is the CD stacker .... this is the king of stackers. DVD, DVD-A, MP3 CD, MP3 DVD and on and on. Loading time was very fast. The map is loaded into the head unit hard drive via the stacker so it is super fast.
MP3
----------
Read CD and DVD MP3 with enormous ease. We went 10 levels down (folders within folders) and the head unit didnt blink. It just opened more and more folders. The REALLY cool thing is that once I scrolled to the top or to the bottom of the song list the dial became stiff and wouldnt turn easily. FORCED FEEDBACK - VERY COOL.
Going out of folders was really simple ....
[]..
click that icon and it goes back out of a folder.
STEERING WHEEL FUNCTIONS
-----------------------------
Very easy to learn and can change songs on the wheel or on the i-Drive. I imagine that voice control is also applicable. The head unit and the cluster shows the song name.
TV
--------
TV tuner was combination analog and digital tuner with dual screen output.
HEAD UNIT
-----------
Unlike previous models COMAND this unit is part of the DVD stacker. The DVD stacker is in fact integrated into the COMAND. The head unit has SOUND AUX plug and VIDEO AUX plug so you can go direct into the (Euro) COMAND with a DVD player.
SUMMARY
----------
Once I found the ON button for the i-Drive and the volume on the armrest the rest was very simple. The phone was hidden under the palm rest and the front most set of buttons on the armrest give shrtcut jumps to head unit functions.
All functions are seemingly multi-user in the sense that there is more than one way to arrive at the same menu option and you can expect to have the passenger operate many of the functions just as the driver would with similar comfort and convenience.
The front face of the COMAND simply doesnt exist. The high mounted screen and the armrest is all that can be seen. The rest is hidden discretely and only the DVD stacker is a clue of what is in the dashboard.
